Indonesia to reopen corruption case against Suharto son

[JURIST] The Indonesian attorney general's office announced Monday that it will reopen a corruption probe against Tommy Suharto [BBC profile], son of former President Haji Mohammad Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. The announcement, made by Director of Investigations Mohammad Salim on the ninth anniversary of the dictator's 1998 resignation [CNN report], said that the probe will focus on Tommy Suharto's alleged corruption in the mid-1990s involving a Suharto-owned car company given a monopoly to build a national car. The Indonesian government is currently trying to seize millions of dollars in a bank account Suharto keeps in an overseas tax haven. Indonesian Elshina radio reported Monday that, according to sources in the attorney general's office, Tommy Suharto allegedly earned over $159 million dollars from the scheme.

In October of last year, Tommy Suharto was released from prison by court order [JURIST report] under the Indonesian government's holiday remission program. Suharto was serving a 10-year sentence for hiring a hitman to kill a judge [BBC report] who had found him guilty in an earlier corruption case, and his release prompted criticism that the Indonesian justice system continues to be easily manipulated by those with money and power. Former President Suharto was spared from criminal charges of corruption [JURIST report] in August of last year after the Jakarta Court of Appeals ruled [JURIST report] that Suharto's inability to speak or write as a result of permanent brain damage [JURIST report] made him unfit to stand trial. AFP has more.

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